A Prince of Forwards

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 317, 30 March 1928, Page 7

A Prince of Forwards

MAURICE BROWNLIE’S RECORD Captain of 1928 All Blacks TWO of the greatest secondary schools of the Dominion, and two of its greatest Rugby rivals, have contributed the captain and vice-captain of the 1928 All Blacks. St. Patrick’s College, which taught Maurice Brownlie his football, is just across the road from Wellington College, where Mark Nicholls developed his genius as a Rugby tactician.

are some amazing coincidences in the selection of these two players to fill the important posts of captain and vice-captain on the South African tour. For one thing, Maurice Brownlie is the second Hawke’s Bay sheep farmer to bo called on, within a few months, to lead a New Zealand side on a great tour. The other was T. C. Lowry, whose ancestral homestead, Okawa, is about thirty miles from Brownlie’s upcountry station, a property called Rocky Hill. Then again, Nicholls and Brownlie are members of the only two families which have both given three brothers to All Black teams. Mark Nicholls, “Doc” Nicholls and Ginger Nicholls have all worn the All Black colours, and so have Maurice Brownlie, Cyril Brownlie and the lesser known Laurence, who is the third of the massive trio. A DUAL CELEBRATION One day in 1924 the boys and the staffs of St. Patrick’s College happened to gather for some sort of a combined celebration of more than usual importance. News of New Zealand’s great victory over Wales, wiping out an old score, had just come through, and one of the speakers was thus able to make timely observations. ft was signally gratifying for both schools, he said, that in the Welsh match the first try had been scored by Maurice Brownlie, and converted by Mark Nicholls. The two men are great figures in Rugby, not only in New Zealand, but also in the worldwide application of the game. After the All Black tour of 1924-25 Brownlie was hailed as one of the greatest forwards of all time, and Nicholls as one of the greatest backs. Outside New Zealand, Brownlie’s only contemporary rival at the time of his greatest triumphs was W. W. Wakefield, the English skipper, who has paid generous tribute to the New Zealander in his fine book on the game. There is now another claimant to the same rank, in the person of J. A.. Ford, the giant Waratah forward; and perhaps a rival may be discovered in South Africa. But it is only on the evidence of homeric performances extending, as Brownlie’s have done, over a long period of years, that admission' to his class can be conceded. A son of James Brownlie, a man of the same colossal frame as his three sons, Maurice Brownlie was born in the early part of 1898, and is just on 30 years of age, Cyril being a year older. The brothers were eighteen and nineteen respectively when they got to Egypt with the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, and it was there, playing on fields of scorching sand,

that they saw' their first serious football along with Jock Richardson and J. H. Parker in matches for the historic Moascar Cup, which got its name from the base camp where the matches were played. TOWARD DAMASCUS

For a time, in the campaign consummated when Allenby reached Damascus, there was more serious work than Rugby afoot, but on their return to New Zealand the brothers threw themselves with zest into Rugby and came down from their Puketitiri sheep run to assist the newly-formed Hastings club.

Their play at first was extremely crude, and not until 1921 did who was improving rapidly, get a game for Hawke’s Bay. In that year Laurie, the third brother, was at the top of his form. He got a game for the North Island and a game for New Zealand before a knee injury put him out of the game for good. Meanwhile Maurice was coming into the limelight, and was studying the game with such enthusiasm that he already showed his champion class. He captained Hawke’s Bay-East Coast in the game against the Springboks (Tom Ileeney played in the game), and in the next year represented the North Island with such success that he was chosen to go to Australia with the team captained by “Moke" Beilis.

While this team was absent, Hawke’s Bay descended on Wellington and lifted the Ranfurly Shield. The following season Brownlie stepped into the captaincy, and his influence was a great factor in the Bay’s run of success. Hard-case footballers became unexpectedly docile when Brownlie was captain, yet the iron hand was well hidden in the velvet glove, and the big man’s popularity and personality were such that an endeavour was made, in 1925, to induce him to be a candidate for the Napier seat at the Parliamentary elections.

He is a serious student of world affairs, a capable speaker, and a man of great strength of character. No one in Hawke’s Bay will be surprised to see him turn to public life when his football days are over, and few are better qualified to enter it.

As captain of the All Blacks Brownlie brings to his position the resources and social qualifications of a man of substance, plus the playing skill of a forward whose play has occasionally been little short of super-human. As a captain he may perhaps be too austere to be generally popular, but he will be sincere in his job. Off the field he plays a fine game of tennis, hitting with a power the writer has seen equalled only in that other great sportsman, A. P. F. Chapman, and he is also a splendid swimmer. In a bathing costume Brownlie is a magnificent figure. Six feet in height, and fourteen stone in weight, and a man of prodigious strength, he is perhaps the finest physical specimen that has ever represented New Zealand. In international games he has scored seven tries, and altogether he has scored 148 points in big football, a remarkable record for a forward